{"id":867005,"date":"2026-10-01T11:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/867005\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T11:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:40:15","slug":"it-was-a-mess-tennessee-fails-to-execute-woman-after-2-lethal-injections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/867005\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It was a mess\u2019: Tennessee fails to execute woman after 2 lethal injections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee failed to execute the lone woman on its death row as planned Wednesday,<\/a> after injecting her with a lethal drug, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Christa Pike <\/a>said Wednesday night that she was being treated at a hospital, but they did not know her condition. A spokesperson for the Department of Correction did not answer an emailed question whether she was alive but said she was \u201ctransported to an off-site medical facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pike, 50, is the state\u2019s only woman on death row. She was convicted of murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, 19, in 1995 and sentenced to death. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.<\/p>\n

In a news conference Wednesday night, journalists who witnessed the botched execution, described snoring and complaints from Pike about pain, as well as her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid on her. At times, the curtain was closed and journalists could only hear sounds.<\/p>\n

\"ChristaChrista Pike.Tennessee Dept. of Correction via AP<\/p>\n

In a federal court filing seeking to halt her execution, Pike\u2019s lawyers said witnesses saw executioners injecting \u201cboth syringes of lethal injection chemicals,\u201d but that Pike remained alive.<\/p>\n

They said Pike \u201chas not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat\u201d and that curtains to the death chamber \u201chave gone down twice,\u201d according to the lawyers.<\/p>\n

In a phone interview with NBC News early Thursday, Slemmer\u2019s mother, May Martinez, described the failed execution attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mess,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, said in a statement that he was ordering \u201ca comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.\u201d He added that the last remaining execution for this year in Tennessee will not be carried out as planned.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing about today was normal\u2019<\/p>\n

An ambulance was seen arriving at the prison where Pike was to be executed and then leaving. Medical aid was being administered, according to online federal court records.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appeared that this did not go like they thought it was supposed to go,\u201d said John North, an investigative producer at WBIR television in Knoxville. \u201cBut we don\u2019t know that. When we left the building, so far as we knew, she was probably still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tori Gessner, a reporter and anchor at WKRN of Nashville who has witnessed five executions in the state, said at a news conference: \u201cNothing about today was normal, typical, at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gessner said that at 7:34 p.m., Pike was heard saying, \u201cMy arm feels like it\u2019s about to burst open.\u201d Pike then talked about that spot on her arm and asked, \u201cDoes this happen like that?\u201d Gessner said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Correction said the state \u201cfollowed every step of the State\u2019s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General\u2019s Office\u201d and that \u201cthe lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TonyTony Carruthers.Tennessee Dept. of Corrections via AP<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time an execution did not go as planned in Tennessee this year. Tony Carruthers<\/a>, convicted in three 1994 killings, was granted a one-year reprieve after executioners in May couldn\u2019t find a vein for a backup IV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,\u201d Pike\u2019s attorneys said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The execution warrant for Pike was set to expire at midnight local time (1 a.m. ET Thursday). The Department of Correction did not immediately say whether it would attempt another execution or when.<\/p>\n

The process to execute Pike began at about 8 p.m., her lawyers said, after the Supreme Court vacated a lower court\u2019s Wednesday morning order that had temporarily blocked it.<\/p>\n

The high court\u2019s decision hours later capped a flurry of last-minute legal maneuvering in a bid by Pike\u2019s defense team to spare her life. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. <\/p>\n

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told The Associated Press that what Pike experienced is \u201csingular and unparalleled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victim\u2019s mother furious<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went to try to execute her, and she didn\u2019t die,\u201d said Martinez, who wanted the execution carried out and was furious with the governor, the director of the Department of Correction and the attorney general.<\/p>\n

\"ChristaChrista Pike in court in 1996.Michael Patrick \/ USA Today via Reuters<\/p>\n

Martinez told NBC News that Pike never expressed remorse during Wednesday\u2019s attempted execution. \u201cNot nothing … about what happened, you know, to Colleen,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

She criticized the communications from officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. And we left,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd he said that it didn\u2019t work … and she\u2019s on her way to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what her message to the governor and attorney general was, Martinez was terse in her reply: \u201cThey f—– up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pike was set to be the first woman in more than 200 years that the state has put to death, according to historical records<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pike does not deny the brutal killing that saw her and two teenage accomplices work together to torture, slash and fatally beat Slemmer. The case became sensationalized when investigators said it was tied to the occult<\/a> because someone had carved a pentagram into Slemmer\u2019s chest and Pike bragged to another student that she had kept a fragment of the victim\u2019s skull as a \u201csouvenir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ColleenColleen Slemmer.Picasa \/ May Martinez via AP<\/p>\n

But Pike\u2019s current supporters argue the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse. \u201cI was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I\u2019d done,\u201d Pike has said.<\/p>\n

Appeals court stayed execution, based on child abuse claims<\/p>\n

About an hour before her scheduled execution at 10 a.m. local time in Nashville, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it needed to review claims made by her lawyers. At issue was whether Pike could reopen a court proceeding centered around her allegations that she was sexually abused beginning when she was a child \u2014 abuse that the state did not dispute at a special hearing in August.<\/p>\n

The appeals court in a split decision agreed to a \u201cshort\u201d reprieve halting her execution \u201cin order to properly analyze the parties\u2019 fully briefed arguments and resolve the issues on the merits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

In turn, the state attorney general\u2019s office asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the execution needed to go on to \u201cavoid rewarding Pike\u2019s abusive delay tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their dissent, the three liberal justices wrote that vacating the lower court\u2019s temporary stay of execution \u201cinterferes with the Sixth Circuit\u2019s routine administrative handling of a capital case and unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike\u2019s claim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see no reason to shortcircuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision,\u201d Sotomayor wrote.<\/p>\n

Lee and the Supreme Court had said this week they would not stop Pike\u2019s execution.<\/p>\n

\"ChristaA letter Pike wrote before she learned Gov. Bill Lee denied clemency.via Rev. Mikey Noechel<\/p>\n

Before she learned Monday that Lee would not intervene in her case, Pike wrote in a letter to NBC News, shared by her spiritual adviser: \u201cWhether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not afraid to die,\u201d wrote Pike, who has been on death row for more than three decades. \u201cI\u2019m only nervous about the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee failed to execute the lone woman on its death row as planned Wednesday, after injecting her with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-867005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}